Miovski Strikes Late for Rangers as Celtic Preserve Perfect Premiership Start

Bojan Miovski scored in the final seconds of normal time to give Rangers a 1-0 Scottish Premiership victory over St Mirren at Ibrox on Wednesday. Press Association reported that the substitute’s decisive finish extended Rangers’ winning run to four matches, while Celtic maintained their perfect start to their league title defence with a 1-0 success at St Johnstone.

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Rangers manager Derek McInnes was back in the technical area after serving a two-game touchline suspension, but his team found St Mirren difficult to break down. Visiting goalkeeper Jacob Chapman produced a series of first-half saves, and Rangers also failed to make the most of several opportunities as the match remained scoreless at the interval.

St Mirren, who had lost 5-1 at Ibrox in the Premier Sports Cup the previous month, became more assured after halftime. Fraser Taylor passed up a major chance for the visitors, and frustration grew among the home supporters as Rangers continued to search for a breakthrough. McInnes introduced Miovski in place of Djeidi Gassama, and the change ultimately decided the contest.

Miovski reacted inside the penalty area during the closing moments of the 90 minutes and found the net to secure all three points. The result gave Rangers a narrow win after a match in which St Mirren had resisted for almost the entire contest and had threatened to take something from their visit to Glasgow.

At McDiarmid Park, summer signing Mika Baur scored his first Celtic goal to settle another tight game. Debutant Celtic goalkeeper Sam Johnstone had earlier made an important first-half save to deny St Johnstone midfielder Joel Cotterill. Baur then struck from close range early in the second half, providing the only goal of the evening.

Celtic head coach Martin O’Neill used the match to rotate his squad before Sunday’s Old Firm meeting with Rangers in the Premier Sports Cup. Camilo Duran, Benjamin Nygren and Kieran Tierney began on the bench, while Cameron Carter-Vickers was rested. Celtic closed out their sixth consecutive league victory of the campaign and their 13th straight win in all competitions stretching back to the closing weeks of last season.